The use of pseudo-causal narratives in EU policies: the case of the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Standard

The use of pseudo-causal narratives in EU policies: the case of the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa. / Zaun, Natascha; Nantermoz, Olivia.
In: Journal of European Public Policy, Vol. 29, No. 4, 2022, p. 510-529.

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Harvard

APA

Vancouver

Bibtex

@article{a45d7281641f47f0b87e4f66a10467c5,
title = "The use of pseudo-causal narratives in EU policies: the case of the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa",
abstract = "The EUTF aims to address the {\textquoteleft}root causes of migration{\textquoteright} by providing development assistance to countries of origin and transit. While it is allegedly based on scientific evidence, scholarly consensus suggests that development assistance is ill-suited to address irregular migration–which is something that some of the actors who designed the EUTF were aware of. We advance a new framework for understanding the emergence and success of pseudo-causal narratives (i.e., narratives relying on unproven and/or disproven causal claims) in EU policymaking. Using frame analysis, we argue that the pseudo-causal {\textquoteleft}root causes{\textquoteright} narrative was adopted against better evidence because it was plausible, compelling and had been used in EU external migration policies before. Faced with the salience of migration and the urgency to act in late 2015, and due to the absence of any clear ideas of what other measures could work, EU actors adopted this narrative to demonstrate that they were actively responding to the {\textquoteleft}crisis{\textquoteright}. The narrative met little contestation, since it met the concerns of both those who were keen to stop migration and those who wanted to preserve the core of previous EU development policy.",
keywords = "development aid, EU external migration policy, European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, evidence-based policymaking, framing, policy narratives, Politics",
author = "Natascha Zaun and Olivia Nantermoz",
note = "Funding Information: This paper is based on the research funded by the Norwegian Research Council (Project No. 288372). The authors would like to thank their interview partners for sharing their insights. Moreover, they would like to thank Andr{\'e} Bank, Ingunn Bj{\o}rkhaug, Kamel Dora{\"i}, Christiane Fr{\"o}hlich, Luicy Pedroza, Guri Tyldum, Karin Vaagland as well as three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.",
year = "2022",
doi = "10.1080/13501763.2021.1881583",
language = "English",
volume = "29",
pages = "510--529",
journal = "Journal of European Public Policy",
issn = "1350-1763",
publisher = "Routledge Taylor & Francis Group",
number = "4",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - The use of pseudo-causal narratives in EU policies

T2 - the case of the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa

AU - Zaun, Natascha

AU - Nantermoz, Olivia

N1 - Funding Information: This paper is based on the research funded by the Norwegian Research Council (Project No. 288372). The authors would like to thank their interview partners for sharing their insights. Moreover, they would like to thank André Bank, Ingunn Bjørkhaug, Kamel Doraï, Christiane Fröhlich, Luicy Pedroza, Guri Tyldum, Karin Vaagland as well as three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - The EUTF aims to address the ‘root causes of migration’ by providing development assistance to countries of origin and transit. While it is allegedly based on scientific evidence, scholarly consensus suggests that development assistance is ill-suited to address irregular migration–which is something that some of the actors who designed the EUTF were aware of. We advance a new framework for understanding the emergence and success of pseudo-causal narratives (i.e., narratives relying on unproven and/or disproven causal claims) in EU policymaking. Using frame analysis, we argue that the pseudo-causal ‘root causes’ narrative was adopted against better evidence because it was plausible, compelling and had been used in EU external migration policies before. Faced with the salience of migration and the urgency to act in late 2015, and due to the absence of any clear ideas of what other measures could work, EU actors adopted this narrative to demonstrate that they were actively responding to the ‘crisis’. The narrative met little contestation, since it met the concerns of both those who were keen to stop migration and those who wanted to preserve the core of previous EU development policy.

AB - The EUTF aims to address the ‘root causes of migration’ by providing development assistance to countries of origin and transit. While it is allegedly based on scientific evidence, scholarly consensus suggests that development assistance is ill-suited to address irregular migration–which is something that some of the actors who designed the EUTF were aware of. We advance a new framework for understanding the emergence and success of pseudo-causal narratives (i.e., narratives relying on unproven and/or disproven causal claims) in EU policymaking. Using frame analysis, we argue that the pseudo-causal ‘root causes’ narrative was adopted against better evidence because it was plausible, compelling and had been used in EU external migration policies before. Faced with the salience of migration and the urgency to act in late 2015, and due to the absence of any clear ideas of what other measures could work, EU actors adopted this narrative to demonstrate that they were actively responding to the ‘crisis’. The narrative met little contestation, since it met the concerns of both those who were keen to stop migration and those who wanted to preserve the core of previous EU development policy.

KW - development aid

KW - EU external migration policy

KW - European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa

KW - evidence-based policymaking

KW - framing

KW - policy narratives

KW - Politics

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85101940000&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/13501763.2021.1881583

DO - 10.1080/13501763.2021.1881583

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85101940000

VL - 29

SP - 510

EP - 529

JO - Journal of European Public Policy

JF - Journal of European Public Policy

SN - 1350-1763

IS - 4

ER -

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Peter Leonhard

Publications

  1. Towards a Model for Building Trust and Acceptance of Artificial Intelligence Aided Medical Assessment Systems
  2. Contrasting requests in Inner Circle Englishes
  3. Towards greener and sustainable ionic liquids using naturally occurring and nature-inspired pyridinium structures
  4. Modeling of microstructural pattern formation in crystal plasticity
  5. Categorizing urban tasks
  6. A Study on the Impact of Intradomain Finetuning of Deep Language Models for Legal Named Entity Recognition in Portuguese
  7. Implications of Material Flow Cost Accounting for Life Cycle Engineering
  8. Germination performance of native and non-native Ulmus pumila populations
  9. MindMatters
  10. Overyielding in experimental grassland communities - Irrespective of species pool or spatial scale
  11. An InfoSpace Paradigm for Local and ad hoc Peer-to-Peer Communication
  12. Tree cover mediates the effect on rapeseed leaf damage of excluding predatory arthropods, but in an unexpected way
  13. Exploring Affective Human-Robot Interaction with Movie Scenes
  14. Interplay of formative assessment and instructional quality—interactive effects on students’ mathematics achievement
  15. Using Large N Longitudinal Comparison to Explain Political Recruitment in Changing Democracies
  16. Where are we with? A dialectical theory on innovation
  17. Control of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors for Track Applications
  18. Integrating methods for ecosystem service assessment
  19. Søren Kierkegaard in deutscher Sprache
  20. Can management-sponsored non-binding remuneration votes shape the executive compensation structure?
  21. Enforcement concepts and strategies in the EU
  22. Diffusion of the Balanced Scorecard
  23. Perceptions of Organizational Downsizing
  24. Proceedings SMC 2016
  25. A new and benign hegemon on the horizon?
  26. Formative Assessment in Mathematics Instruction
  27. Use of lignins from sugarcane bagasse for assembling microparticles loaded with Azadirachta indica extracts for use as neem-based organic insecticides